ALERT: Avoid Feeding Babies Fluoridated Water

New York – April 5, 2005 – Infant formulas prepared with fluoridated water increase dental fluorosis risk, according to the April 2004 Journal of the American College of Nutrition(1) and other studies. To prevent this tooth staining, researchers caution against mixing infant formulas with fluoridated water.

Fluorosis, white-spotted, yellow or brown stained, sometimes pitted or crumbly teeth, is the too-late warning sign that babies overdosed on fluoride. Neither a nutrient nor essential to health, fluoride, can also damage bones.(1a)

Researchers Marshall and colleagues found more fluorosed teeth in children who consumed the most fluoridated water either alone or through infant formulas(1).

Researchers, Brothwell and Limeback, urge breastfeeding, or mixing infant formula with non-fluoridated water, to avoid dental fluorosis, in a November 2003 Journal of Human Lactation study. They found three times more fluorosis in children consuming 1 milligram per liter fluoridated water compared to those who drank non-fluoridated water.(2)

Breastfeeding does not increase cavity risk, according to a recent Journal of the American Dental Association study(3).

Researcher Mascarenhas also advised parents to avoid fluoridated water for infant formula preparation to prevent fluorosis, in a 2000 Pediatric Dentistry study(4)

“To our knowledge, no U.S. dental or governmental agency promoting fluoridation as a cavity preventive, such as the American Dental Association or the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), warns parents to avoid fluoridated water for infant feeding. Why not?” asks lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.

Formula prepared with optimally fluoridated water provides 100 times more fluoride than the amount in breast milk(7). And newborns do not have “fully developed renal handling capacity for fluoride at this early stage of life…”(8) which can lead to dangerous bone-fluoride build up and more.

Not only is infant fluoride intake risky, it’s unnecessary. According to the CDC, “Fluoride works primarily after teeth have erupted?”(9). Further, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration never safety-tested fluoride for ingestion(10).

In 2000, after extensively reviewing fluoride and health studies, a panel of British scientists report, “We were unable to discover any reliable good-quality evidence in the fluoridation literature world-wide,”(11) despite incorrect news reports disseminated by prominent fluoride proponents about this review(12).